Sixteen months after Ian Tomlinson’s killing and almost a year after the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) delivered its report, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) has ruled that the police officer who was filmed striking Ian Tomlinson during the G20 protests in April 2009 will not face any criminal charges. Ian Tomlinson was simply trying to get home when he was attacked.
Director of Public Prosecutions Keir Starmer said there was no prospect of conviction because of a ‘sharp disagreement between the medical experts’ as to how Ian Tomlinson died. This is an outrageous gloss on events, since the first post-mortem, carried out by police favourite Dr Freddy Patel – currently under investigation for alleged misconduct over four unrelated post-mortem examinations – found he died of natural causes. However two further investigations showed that he had died from internal bleeding as a result of ‘blunt force trauma’ – such as being repeatedly hit by a police truncheon.
City of London police made an immediate attempt at the time to cover up their role in Tomlinson’s death by giving out false information, including that they had rescued the stricken Tomlinson and were then attacked by other demonstrators. However, mobile phone film footage handed to The Guardian newspaper within hours showed PC Simon Harwood from the Metropolitan Police striking Ian Tomlinson from behind and pushing him to the ground.
In fact the IPPC report, as yet unpublished, is believed to recommend prosecution for manslaughter. On past experience, Starmer and the upper echelons of the CPS are likely to be honoured for their loyalty to the British state. Steven O’Doherty, CPS deputy director, who has recommended no action, also exonerated the police who killed John Charles de Menezes at Stockwell Tube. They stand in a long line of lickspittle lawyers who have willingly covered up for police murder and supported the framing of innocent black and Irish prisoners.
The travesty of justice over Ian Tomlinson will join that shameful litany of those murdered by the police with impunity: Jean Charles de Menezes; Harry Stanley, shot dead in east London when police claimed they mistook a table leg for a gun; Kevin Gately and Blair Peach, bludgeoned to death by police on anti-fascist demonstrations; Derek Bennet, shot in Brixton for clutching a novelty lighter in the shape of a gun; Colin Roach, shot in custody at Stoke Newington police station – to name but a few. Not one police officer has ever been convicted for any of these deaths.
Jane Bennett
FRFI 216 August/September 2010
